Telecom Trends

The CRTC has issued its decision (2008-6) on delegation of investigation of telemarketing complaints.

In a nutshell, everyone who makes telemarketing calls, and their clients (the companies that hire telemarketers to make calls on their behalf) will need to register with a new agency. The CRTC explicitly rejected a call to exempt the registration of those making calls that are exempt from the Do Not Call registry.

One might have thought that clubs would be exempt because they are calling people with whom a business relationship exists. Every girl scout that calls to sell cookies, every school kid that calls to sell you tickets, every club member that calls to tell you about their car wash - everyone of these people is a telemarketer under the CRTC's definition. Even if they only call families within the school, if there is money involved in the call, it is telemarketing.

If the kids call from their home phone, that phone better be registered. Our kids are telemarketers. The client is their club. Each kid as well as the club will have to register and pay $100. And parents, you better make sure that the club has registered because your phone line is now being used for telemarketing purposes. By the way, mom and dad, you have to keep a copy of club's registration - and proof of their fees paid - for 3 years in case of an audit.

Back in September, I wrote that I thought the Section 41.7(1) of Telecom Act specifically exempts the following classes of callers from any database registry: calls made when an business relationship exists, calls from a registered charity, newspaper, political party, etc. The CRTC's response was that all 9 of the parties that pointed out the conflict in 41.7(1) were mistaken. The CRTC said that Section 41.2 lets it administer databases (beyond the DNCL), although mysteriously, the exemption from any databases doesn't seem to apply.

There were some suggestions that all of the costs should be paid by the telecom services providers. After all, they are the biggest beneficiaries of telemarketing. The phone companies tried to get compensated for helping with the investigations - the CRTC said no to that; it is a cost of doing business.

Here is how this decision chases jobs out of Canada. The CRTC has established new rules:

A telemarketer shall not initiate a telemarketing telecommunication on its own behalf unless it has registered with, and provided information to, the National DNCL operator and has paid all applicable fees charged by the Complaints Investigator delegate.

A telemarketer shall not initiate a telemarketing telecommunication on behalf of a client unless that client has registered with, and provided information to, the National DNCL operator and the applicable fees charged by the Complaints Investigator delegate associated with that client have been paid.

The CRTC can only enforce its rules in Canada. So, let's say a lawn care company hires a US or overseas telemarketing company that completely ignores the Do Not Call List. The CRTC can't go after the telemarketing company - how would they press charges outside Canada? The Commission forgot to add a rule explicitly requiring clients of telemarketers to register.

Those pesky lawn care companies or duct cleaners don't need to register - the CRTC requires the telemarketer to ensure that its client has registered. But the telemarketer is out of the country; why would they care? What is the Commission going to do?

Will the CRTC fix the holes in its decision that tries to make all of us who volunteer to make a few calls for schools and clubs pay $100 annual registration fees?

Who thought the gun registry was out of control?

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CRTC, DNCL